Oktoberfest!!!

Oktoberfest!

The 1st weekend in October, Mark and I caught a plane to Munich to take in our first experience of Oktoberfest! We took a short flight via Lufthansa and flew into Munich's International airport. From there, we took the train to our hotel, the Sheraton Westpark, which was located very conveniently right next to the train station and was approximately a 10 min. walk to Theresienwiese, the area where the Oktoberfest is constructed.

Once we checked into our hotel, we walked to the Oktoberfest grounds and had a blast taking in all the sights. It was really crowded, as it was the last weekend of the festival. It houses 14 big beer tents. Each one has hundreds of tables where, if you are lucky enough to get seat, everyone heads to drink a lot of beer and eat some traditional German food! We took in all the sights and then walked back to our hotel to clean up before dinner.

As we were not able to reserve seats in any of the tents, Mark and I bought tickets to "Dis Weinsplatz", an Oktoberfest party at the Lowenbrau beer hall in the city of Munich. It was only about a mile away from the main Oktoberfest location, so we took the train a couple of stops into the city and then walked to the beer hall. We were seated with 8 other people, so we had a very full table! Although we had a language barrier at the table (Germans on one side and Italians on the other), and were definitely lacking in space!!, we ended up having a terrific time. The servers came by to take our order and then brought us each a liter of beer! In all truthfulness, the beers were as big as my head! LOL! The hall filled up with people, and then the band got everyone in the party mood with a string of German beer-drinking music!! We also enjoyed a pork dinner (which, of course, included, sauerkraut!!) By the time dinner was done, most people were standing on the table benches, belting out the music and toasting to their tablemates! Not being used to drinking so much beer, I was done after only one liter! LOL! It was a fantastic evening!

We spent Sunday sight-seeing in the Marienplatz area in the city and then did one more walk through of the Oktoberfest grounds. It was not nearly as crowded so we were able to walk into a few of the beer tents and check out the festivites. It was such a great weekend that Mark and I are already planning our trip for next year's Oktoberfest!